(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for establishing a communication link with a target communication device.
(b) Description of the Related Art
For wireless communication systems such as Bluetooth, WiFi P2P, and cellular communication systems, a communication link needs to be established between two communication devises in advance to perform communication. In order to establish a communication link, it is necessary to know the communication identifier (e.g., phone number, SSID (Service Set Identifier), MAC Address, etc.) of an opposing device in advance and use it when establishing a communication link. However, if the communication identifier of a communication device with which one wants to establish a communication link in advance is not known, there is no way to establish a communication link with that device.
In a cellular communication system, a communication link is established by registering a device as a target for management by a base station through random access and calling the phone number registered as the device's identifier in the entire system. For Bluetooth or WiFi P2P, on the other hand, a list of SSIDs is created in a user's device by searching for nearby devices and collecting SSIDs, and then a communication link is established by selecting the SSID of a communication device the user wants to connect to.
Such a search process requires a lot of time. That is, when there are many devices near a device that wants to do a search, it takes a long time to do the search. Moreover, when many devices are searched, it takes a long time for the user to select a device it wants from the list.
Also, depending on application services, the user may not decide which device to select since they do not know the name of the device they want to communicate with, thus consuming more time. This can pose much inconvenience for the user and an obstacle to activating mobile services through direct communication.
To overcome this obstacle, technologies such as IrDA (Infrared Data Association) or NFC (Near Field Communication) are used so that the user can use a communication service after getting a Bluetooth or WiFi P2P communication identifier and establish a communication link easily and quickly.
IrDA is a method of establishing a communication link by pointing a source device toward an IrDA receiver attached to a target device to enable reception only from the target device and allow only the target device to inform the transmitting side of its communication identifier.
On the other hand, NFC enables communication terminals to establish an NFC or WiFi P2P communication link with each other by touching them together to get each other's communication identifier (NFC or WiFi P2P identifier).
It is necessary for the user to know the identifier of a target communication device in advance and search for the identifier in order to establish a communication link in existing communication systems, which imparts inconvenience to the user. In addition, there is no way at all to connect to a communication target whose identifier is not known, so there have been attempts to overcome this drawback through a combination of NFC and Bluetooth, a combination of IrDA and Bluetooth, or a combination of NFC and WiFi P2P. However, these methods have the disadvantage of having to move close (within 10 cm or 1 m) to the target device because they are available within very narrow ranges of use.